Realms of Enlightenment: The Grey Companions (final update posted 02.14.10)

[Jon Potter]

Could you give overall level or classes of characters?

The PCs at this point in the gamed ranged from 7th-9th levels.

Huzair - fire elemarn (a genasi variant) wizard/thief
Morier - drow eldritch warrior (a fighter-sorcerer type class)
Noxin - half-giant fighter/barbarian
Saelus - human fighter/wizard/spellsword
Shamalin - half-elf cleric

You have interesting story hour and I find in-group conflict refreshing altough they still lack proper suspicion toward new PCs...

I'm glad that you're enjoying the story, but at times, the level of inter-party strife borders on game-breaking. It does keep things interesting though.

I'd probably end up like Ahlear with my suspicion

Before or after his rebirth? After his death I think that the problems he had with the party are pretty straightforward. Before his death, I think that he was just too independently-minded to be able to put the group's needs before his own.

Actually, some of the seeds he sowed back in Colybury come back to haunt the party later on... but I'm getting ahead of myself!

 

[Jon Potter]

[Realms #458a] The Scions of Mist and Magma

Noxin began backing up slowly, trying to keep an eye on both the screaming demiurge and the moving pile of stone and dirt. Thankfully, the former was fading away even as the living mountain reared up.

"Windblade, could you cause a bluster strong enough to push that pile o' dirt?" the half-giant asked the sword in his hand.

"My mastery of wind is enough to force a roc from the skies," the sword sighed, "but this... it is beyond me. It is the work of the Goddess Herself."

The half-giant cursed and looked at Saelus. "You got any ideas there, commander?!" he asked, stepping backward again. His heel collided with Waveblade as he did so.

"Rr- Rr- Right," Saelus managed to say, his lips shivering as if from the cold. "I will gather Stoneblade; maybe the earth heap will recognize it as its link?" He seemed to want to turn but for a moment was unable to look away, but he mastered himself and picked up the fallen greatsword.

"You gather the Water, and if I can, I will pick up Fire as well," the Colonel went on, gathering confidence as he slipped on the familiar mantle of field commander. "Hopefully the Earth Elemental is slower then us. We can outpace it and keep alive that way..." He stooped and picked up Flameblade as well and held both swords high in the air, gripping them at the ricasso just beneath their hilts, so as not to appear battle ready.

"Stoneblade," Saelus commanded, "address this Elemental, please, and show him we mean no harm!"

"ARE YOU MAD, FLESHLING?" the gray sword thundered. "IT ACTS BY THE DEMIURGE'S WILL ALONE. THERE WILL BE NO REASONING WITH IT!"

"These attacks serve only to distract you from your goal," Flameblade added. "If you all fall here, then there will be no resurrection for Dridana and no destruction for the Rot Queen!"

"See if you can distract that pile of dirt!" Noxin said to the Colonel as he stooped and picked up Waveblade in his off-hand. He turned, hunched in a defensive stance with the two Elemental Blades leaning in towards each other, almost crossed in front of him.

"I have not prepared -" Saelus started to bark back and then Noxin touched the two blades against one another. There was a strangely sibilant ripping sound and the two weapons flared with a brilliant aquamarine brilliance.

And suddenly Noxin was holding only one sword; a greatsword of a length that rivaled the one he kept strapped across his back. It was much too big to be wielded by anyone smaller than he was, and would have looked well-suited in an ogre's eager hands. The weapon was surrounded by a luminous haze and dripped moisture onto the already wet ground.

"I AM CLOUDBLADE, SCION OF MIST, MIGHTIEST OF THE ELEMENTAL BLADES!" the enormous greatsword hissed. Noxin looked at the weapon and blinked.

"Oops," he said.



Some 150 feet away, Morier and Huzair collided with the edge of the demi-plane, and though it looked like roiling clouds it was as solid as a brick wall. Morier struck it and rebounded into Huzair, cushioning he latter man's impact somewhat and sending both of them onto the ground, bleeding from scrapes and gashes that leaked, not red blood, but rather the emerald tendrils of some sort of plant that was trying to grow out of their bodies.



Saelus looked at Noxin's mist-cloaked blade and then up at the earth elemental. The monolithic creature would be upon them any second. The Colonel touched Stoneblade and Flameblade to one another decisively and there was that same rending susurration and the two swords pulsed with an angry orange glow for a single heartbeat. When the light died down the wizard held a single sword, a sabre that smoked blackly and glowed as if it had just been pulled from the forge.

"I AM MOLTENBLADE, THE SCION OF MAGMA, GREATEST OF THE ELEMENTAL BLADES!" the sabre roared in a voice like an earthquake.



"What the-?" Huzair cursed, pulling at the bloom of greenery that was forcing itself out of the abrasion in his cheek. It hurt to tug at them, as if they were part of him, somehow. "What is this? What's going on?"

Morier got to his feet. his breath coming in ragged adrenalin-fueled gasps. He too had some leafy shoots protruding from a gash about his right eyebrow. He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it quickly as Shamalin clanked out of the tall grass, nearly collided with him and then slammed bodily into the edge of the pocket dimension with a sound like a struck gong. She rebounded and landed at Morier and Huzair's feet.

She blinked up at them, her eyes still filled with shock and awe. Verdant tendrils were peeking out of a cut at her hairline.

"H-how?" she stammered. "How can we cope with this? So much power. So much pain."



The elemental stepped forward and a fist the size of a cottage swept around, low to the ground and struck Noxin. The half-giant was a big man and he was very adept at standing his ground in a pushing contest, but he may as well have been trying to hold back an avalanche. The gargantuan elemental struck him hard and the awesome blow lifted him off his feet like he was made of straw. The big man flew bodily through the air and slammed into ground beside the Colonel, bounced once and then rolled up against the wizard's legs.

 

[Jon Potter]

[Realms #459] Up, Up and Away!

"Ow..." Noxin grimaced, spitting blood. There was a cut along the side of the half-giant's jaw, Saelus saw, and from it were sprouting verdent, leafy tendrils. The wizard jerked back his own leg from beneath the big man and saw that fingers of green were poking through a hole torn in his polished boot by the flying barbarian.

He quickly looked back up at the elemental and saw its fist going up, up, up... 80 feet in the air at least.

"Saelus, don't leave my side," Noxin suggested, brandishing Cloudblade. "I am going to fog up the surroundings and give us some cover!" The wizard held up his hand and shook his head.

"My Sandstorm will be much better in laying cover," Saelus told the barbarian.

"Cast your spell then!!" Noxin replied and assumed Gaseous Form.

Smiling a smile through gritted teeth, the wizard said, "I was about to."



"Flor have mercy!" Shamalin cried out and targeted herself with a Dispel Magic. Even as she cast it, however, she felt the magic going wrong. The power in this place - Dridana's power - was overwhelming. It filled every bit of the demiplane, warping the effects of magic, and wrestling it away from the cleric like a bully taking a baby's toy. The delicate matrix of the Dispel Magic exploded in Shamalin's head, sending waves of unrestrained magic pulsing through her body.

She screamed and staggered to the side, her mind an unfocused, buzzing, snarl.

"Shamalin!" Morier cried out as the Mercybringer convulsed. Huzair gritted his teeth and looked up at the island above.

"I am going up!" he announced. "This is a distraction." He activated the Ring of Invisibility and drew forth his Scroll of Fly. "Vola!" he intoned. As Shamalin had, he felt the hands of Dridana trying to undo his magic at the source, but he worked around it on the fly and rewove the spell before it could come unravelled.

The scroll crumpled to dust in his hands as the spell took hold.



Saelus kept a wary eye on the elemental's enormous fist as he worked the somatic components for his Sandstorm spell. The threads of magic began to come apart in his mind, but he held them fast and released the magic more or less at the elemental's feet. A raging storm of dirt and grit sprang up around the monolith of stone, completely blocking from view its body from the waist down.

The elemental's fist came down on Noxin with the force of a landslide and passed harmlessly through the half-giant's Gaseous Form. The wisps of barbarian parted around the stony fist and reformed in its wake. He grinned a misty grin.

"Wow! This is pretty cool," he said and looked down at Saelus. The wizard was hiding at the edge of his magical Sandstorm, hidden for the moment from the elemental. "HEY, SAELUS!" he called, and when the wizard gave no indication that he'd heard him, the half-giant realized that he wasn't actually speaking... which sort of made sense given that his mouth was made of fog or something. He shrugged his gaseous shoulders and looked around. "Well, I guess I can't talk," he thought to himself. insubstantial lips moving out of habit. "Okay... Well... Up seems to be the way to go... UP!"

And with that thought he Levitated toward the island.



Shamalin tried to focus on the miracles she'd prayed for that morning and found that she could not. Her mind was reeling from the damage the unrestrained magic had done to her and she could not concentrate enough to cast even an orison. Knowing that her spells were beyond her, she struggled for a moment to push back a rising panic, considering all the while how, not long ago, this would have been a welcome end. The irony of meeting her death at the hands of a Goddess of Good, considering Shamalin's past, was not lost upon her even in her befuddled state. But there was a small task that yet needed to be finished.

Shamalin began praying, a desperate appeal to Flor... and Umba... and Shaharizod... and Brogine... and anyone else she could think of. She pleaded on behalf of all those who had sufferred and fallen on the journey to this point - a cry for divine intervention... to make Dridana see the reason behind their purpose here.



Hearing the barely intelligible litany of prayer coming from the Mercybringer's lips, Morier thought that she had somehow been driven mad by the magical backlash he had seen her suffer. He was about to go to her aid when a rope dropped down in front of him.

"Come on Morier!" Huzair's voice called down from above. The albino looked up and saw that the rope ended in mid-air 15 or so feet above his head. The wizard's voice was calling from somewhere above that point. "The fate of the world lies with us. Grab the rope! Let us go save the world!"

Happily and without reservation of any sort, Morier grabbed the rope and felt an ineffectual tug on it.

"You are going to need to use the Levitation Dust I gave you!" Huzair's annoyed voice told him. "I do not know how someone so small can be so damned heavy!"

Morier concentrated with all his might, managing to Levitate off the ground and was immediately pulled toward the floating island by Huzair's tether.



Saelus backed away from the Sandstorm as quickly as he dared. The elemental was still visible from the waist up, which left its two enormous fists free to crush him like an insect. It didn't do so, however. Instead it raised those fists and emitted a thunderous sound like stone breaking against stone. A web of cracks rose up its body from some point inside the Sandstorm and then it fell apart. Slabs of rock ground away from its torso, amid a torrent of raw earth and gravel. With a ground-jarring thud it dropped into the whirling cloud of sand and vanished.

Mouthing a prayer of thanks for his good fortune, Saelus concentrated on the Levitation spell active upon him and rose upward.



Huzair quaffed a Potion of Cure Light Wounds... his last such elixir... and felt a moment's reprieve from the greenery splitting his wounds open from the inside. The sense of relief passed quickly however and then he could feel the plants working their terrible work again.

Dangling below the Invisible wizard, Morier did not have even that much respite and he winced as the tendrils of green sprouting from his forehead forced their way down over his eye to brush against his cheek, threatening to block his sight. He shook his head, parting the vines and allowing him to see clearly.

He regretted it almost at once.

He could see Saelus floating slowly upward, thirty feet or so above the ground and at least twice that from the bottom of the floating island above. Noxin was harder to spot, but their was a humanoid-shaped cloud of fog three quarter's of the way to the island that seemed of the proper bulk to be the half-giant. Below them the Sandstorm churned, and rising from the center of it was a vast misty shape that Morier immediately recognized.

"Air elemental!" he called up to Huzair.

"Crap!" the wizard called back.



"Most holy Dridana, goddess of nature... do not fear us," Shamalin prayed aloud. "We've come to rescue you from your prison tomb. Hear me!"

She did. And she came.

The glowing smoky face materialized before the cleric, eyes glowing with divine agony and madness. The Mercybringer looked into those eyes and was immediately struck blind, sap exploding from empty sockets that had once held eyes. The demiurge opened its mouth and spoke a word. Shamalin stiffened and fell to the ground, dead.

A gore-slicked creature of wood and leaf, vaguely humanoid in shape, tore itself from the half-elf's corpse, adding its own cries of torment to those of the demiurge.

 

[Hairy Minotaur]

I almost guessed it, though I thought Shamalin's body would fuel a twisted plant (like a hangman's tree) while Shamalin became a dryad. All the more to protect the crazed diefic hortalculturist.

 

[Jon Potter]

I almost guessed it, though I thought Shamalin's body would fuel a twisted plant (like a hangman's tree) while Shamalin became a dryad. All the more to protect the crazed diefic hortalculturist.

Good ideas, HM. Again, I ask: where were you when I was planning this encounter?

Another Primal Dread check (and another failure) for Shamalin laid the cleric low. The plant creature that births itself from Shamalin's remains is a Child of Syllisia from Atlas Games' Touched by the Gods, quite possibly the first 3rd party d20 product I ever bought and one of the most influential on this campaign.

 

[mdougherty331]

Hey Huzair has a translator! Some of your stuff is on, but I do not mean him to as bad as you make him out. He wants the power, but for the respect that Morier has. At least that is my motivation. He is all about glory and getting his props for sure. Ruling the world....well it would get him laid.

 

[Jon Potter]

[Realms #460] The Heart of the Matter

Noxin looked up at the jagged bottom of the floating island and urged himself toward its edge, using the natural flight granted by his Gaseous Form to change his approach so that he Levitated up to the island along the edge. He was almost there, he saw with mounting excitement.

Perhaps there was something to be said for floating after all...



"Does it see us?" Huzair called down to Morier as the wizard hauled them both toward the edge of the island. He focused entirely on flight, not daring to slow down now with the threat of an air elemental added to their already dire situation.

Morier, dangling below, looked at the new elemental and fancied that he could already feel the powerful currents of wind whipping around the towering thing. But it was likely his imagination as the misty shape seemed to be still gathering itself together.

"Not yet!" he called up to the mage. "It's not fully formed. We've got a few moments... but that's all" Above him, Huzair grinned invisibly.

"That's all we'll need," he said as they reached the island and flew up over its upper surface. In a small voice to himself he added, "I hope."



Saelus looked up at Noxin's misty form as the barbarian vectored toward the edge of the floating island. The wizard was going to come up at least twenty feet from the edge, but there was nothing for it; he didn't have the benefits of the mist blade.

"Sword," Saelus said, holding the weapon he did have before him so that he addressed the crosspiece more or less. "Now that you are merged, do you know more about the keys?"

"WE ELEMENTAL BLADES ARE THE KEYS!" the sword crackled and spit and Saelus noticed now that the blade's orange glow flared and brightened with each word the weapon spoke. Blast furnace heat was coming off it in waves that the wizard could feel but was not bothered by in the slightest. "WITHOUT THE FOUR WHO ARE ALL THE HEART CANNOT BE FREED!"

"And what happens if we merge the blades further?" Saelus asked. "Taking the two blades down to one?"

"YOU WILL HAVE UNITY!" Moltenblade told him. "FOUR ELEMENTS AS ONE! MASTERY OVER ALL! THE POWER TO FREE THE FRUITFUL ONE'S HEART WITH A SINGLE STROKE!"



Noxin drifted over the lip of the island at roughly the same time as Huzair and Morier flew in from the opposite direction. They all got a very clear view of the flat parcel of land that was somehow suspended in the air. Grass grew long and verdant on every available square inch of ground, and near the center of the island, two majestic oaks spread their leaves as if to the warmth of the sun. At the edge nearer to Noxin, a bubbling natural spring provided a perpetual supply of water which spilled out over the edge, causing the drizzle of tiny raindrops that fell onto the land far below. Not far from the spring crouched the remains of a ruined temple. A large reddish gem embedded into a pedestal of silvery metal stood near the edge where Huzair and Morier approached. The crystal gem and its base were the only things on the island that were not once living.

Noxin could tell at once that the temple had been defiled. Its remains, however, showed that its design was antiquated with outer walls constructed from hardened peat and an inner wall from shrubbery; trees formed its supporting columns, vines and latticework trellises its statuary. All were in a state of decrepitude and disrepair that could only come from eons of neglect.



Morier could tell at once that the gemstone on the pedestal was Dridana's Heart, and as soon as his feet cleared the edge of the island he released Huzair's rope and ran to the pedestal. The stone was larger than any the eldritch warrior had ever seen before - nearly the size of his head and utterly flawless. Upon inspection of the giant gemstone he could see visions of nature scenes slowly spinning within its translucent surface: serene plains, sparkling waterfalls, and peaceful dales festooned with oak and weeping willows all drifted within the rose-colored crystal. Forest animals could be seen playing beneath the trees as leaves fell gently around them.

It was beautiful.

"Are you crying?" Huzair's voice asked from somewhere nearby. Morier did not tear his eyes away from the gemstone.

"The Heart, Huzair," he said, breathlessly. "We've finally found it!"

 

[Jon Potter]

[Realms #460a] An Unlikely Hero

"Great!" the wizard replied. "Now what do we do with it?"

"The swords!" Morier said quickly, turning away from the gem with reluctance. "We need them. Now!"

"Yeah... well I sort of... dropped mine back when the giant face screamed at us," Huzair admitted, shuddering invisibly. Morier nodded.

"Me too," he told his invisible companion. "Hopefully Noxin or Saelus picked them up."

"Well, where are they?" Huzair groused. "We are in kind of a hurry here!"

"I saw Saelus and Noxin Levitating toward the island," the albino told his friend. "But I think the elemental's going to get to them before they get to us." There was a pause during which they listened to the rising howl of the wind below and Huzair reached a decision.

"Good-bye, my friend," the wizard's voice said and then his Valiant Vessel traveler's purse appeared in the air and thunked down at Morier's feet. "It was a pleasure fighting with you." The eldritch warrior looked down at the bag his eyes grew wide with concern.

"Huzair? What are you thinking?" Morier called but there was no response. The mage was already gone.



Saelus was urging himself along the jagged underside of the island when he heard Huzair's voice coming from somewhere nearby.

"The Heart is up top, Colonel," he said. "I hope to hell you brought the swords with you."

"I have half of them," Saelus replied without slowing his methodical pace.

"Then move your ass," Huzair replied. "I will try slowing the elemental."



Huzair looked down at the thing forming itself below him. Distortions in the vapor and wind of the thing suggested two eyes and a ragged mouth. It seemed to stare right at him despite the fact that he was Invisible and he suppressed another shudder.

"I cannot understand why we are rescuing you, Dridana. This quest has killed so many of us already," Huzair cried out to the spirit of the goddess he'd come here to save. "I hope you are worth saving!"

And then he dove to the right, Wand of Scorch ready in his hand. He pointed and spoke a command word unleashing a tongue of magical fire that struck the vaporous elemental squarely. The flame was caught up in its swirling body as it began to spin, transforming in an eyeblink from a humanoid to a sixty foot tall cyclone.

The whirlwind came at him so fast that he could do nothing to avoid it. And then he was gripped by the wind, buffeted from all sides and scoured by debris caught up in the tornado with him.



Saelus Levitated over the side of the island and stepped easily onto the grass beside the bubbling spring. He spotted Morier and started to run, Moltenblade hot in his fist.



Noxin's Form had remained Gaseous, content to slowly drift forward. But upon seeing the wizard running toward the pale elf, he dismissed the effect. As soon as he regained his solidity, he began to run, displaying the speed for which his barbarian tribe was famous.



Morier picked up Huzair's Handy Haversack and found the flap unclasped and open. Attached to the top was a scrap of parchment on which was a note written in the wizard's spidery script. It read:

"If you are reading this, I am dead.
Morier, divide my stuff the best you see fit.
Your decision is my final wish.
Tell the old man I died a hero.
Your friend, Huzair."​

Morier looked up and mouthed the word, "No."



Suspended within the cyclone, Huzair tried to activate his Ring of Blinking, but it did nothing; belatedly, he considered that this pocket dimension must have no connection to the ethereal plane. And as the winds ripped at him, shredding his flesh, he focused his Concentration on casting one last spell.

"This is a manuever I learned from Blackheart," he told the elemental through gritted teeth. "See you on the other side."

Then he spoke two words of magic, "Pilae inflammati!" and detonated a Fireball on himself. It blew the elemental's whirlwind apart from the inside and reduced Huzair Blacksmoke to a cloud of ash.

 

[Jon Potter]

[Realms #460b] At

Saelus ran with Moltenblade held out in front of him as if making a cavalry charge, albeit on foot... which he found distasteful. Not that infantry didn't have their place. Of course they did, but his place was not amongst their ranks. From the corner of his eye, he spotted the barbarian moving in fast from the far side of the island, and although he had well over twice the distance to cover it looked as though the half-giant were going to reach the albino only a few moments after Saelus did.

Clearly, Noxin was well-suited to the role of footman.

The wizard skidded to a halt a few paces away from Morier and held the Scion of Magma up in one hand while bracing his other hand on his knee. He huffed and puffed for a moment before managing to get out, "Morier? Where are the others? I think our mage has bought us a few seconds."

Morier said nothing for a moment as, grim-faced, he slung the Handy Haversack across his body. For a moment he could not believe that Huzair had done what he'd done, but then he focused on what yet remained to do, snapping at once to full attention.

"Shamalin was struck mad or something," the elf said, sparing a worried look over his shoulder in the direction he and Huzair had come. "She was babbling and-"

Noxin thundering up to the pair stopped Morier in mid-sentence. An enormous smile split the half-giant's face.

"Well, this is it then! Lets free this goddess!!" he said, excitedly. "But first..." He produced three small vials, holding each by the neck between the fingers of his left hand. He offered them around and then downed the remaining one in a single gulp. His wounds closed somewhat, but overall the effect wasn't all that great. He snorted and tossed the empty potion bottle over his shoulder.

As Morier chugged his healing elixir, Noxin held out Cloudblade. "Saelus, join that sword here," he said, giving a nod to the blade the wizard held in his hand. "Morier, grab a hold! We will plunge it into the gem together! That's how this works, right?"

"Just breaking the 'gem' will suffice, I am of a mind," Saelus replied, first sniffing and then downing the potion. He looked at the half-giant and held up the empty vial. "I will repay you this potion if we get through this ordeal."

Noxin turned an eye to Saelus ."Lad..." he started to say and then ever so slightly scrunched his face, as if to resolve himself. "There's time for debate later. Let's just get this done!".

And again he thrust the sword forward to be combined with the Colonel's. Moltenblade and Cloudblade crossed blades with a sizzling sound and the air was rent as a pulse of light flared brilliant white around them. When it faded, Saelus was holding a new sabre that seemed at once more common and more fantastic than any of the previous elemental blades. It was made of steel - or something that looked like steel - engraved point to crosspiece with a motif of intertwining vines and leaves. The whole radiated the wholesome yellow glow of sunlight.

"Hey!" Noxin growled. "How'd you get the sword?"

"I don't-" Saelus started before his new weapon interrupted him.

"We are Unity, the Four Who are All," the sword said, its voice not unlike the voice of the samsara sword, Morier observed mutely. Although this talking blade seemed to be speaking with a single voice that still somehow spoke in harmony with itself.

Those words - 'the Four Who are All'. How many times had he listened to Ledare talk about them around the campfire? They had hypothesized dozens of possible meanings for the phrase and now... here was the explanation, concrete, with no ambiguity. And where was Ledare?

The albino looked at his two companions and reflected on the irony... or poetry... of finally reaching this climactic moment with only these two relative strangers at his side. Vade, Ixin, Feln, Lela, Karak, Ixin again, Ahlear, Anania, Huzair... all had paid the ultimate price to put him where he stood at the moment. He stood, slack-jawed, overwhelmed by the circumstances.

His reverie did not last long.

"Whoah!" Noxin shouted, readying his greathammer as he looked up at something above and behind Saelus.

A volume of water the size of a large inn rose up from the spring into the crude shape of a humanoid. Its limbs were thick tendrils of water that loosely resembled arms and it raised these above its vague suggestion of a head. Its voice rose up like the crashing of surf during a hurricane.

"Time's up! Now move!" Saelus commanded as he shoved Unity into Morier's hands and shoved the albino towards the gem. The elf stumbled once, but with the blade in hand, he knew exactly what to do.

He leveled it at the metal pedestal and the sword spoke, "At long last..." Then a twisting ray of energy erupted from the blade, bathing the gem simultaneously in fire, lightning, ice, and acid. The metal pedestal dissolved into slag under the elemental barrage, leaving the gem suspended in the air at chest height.

The water elemental cried out in frustration and collapsed back into the spring even as a rumbling sound rose up from all around them. The swirling iridescent clouds that bordered the demiplane seemed to be rolling closer, swallowing up the plane in the process.

 

[Hairy Minotaur]

With the insane diety near saving and the demi-plane ready to expel the survivors. I'm left wondering do we see some reincarnations from the nature goddess or do we see ?

And as for those that came before:

Ixin - I think would have been proud to die for this cause and would have been fine with Morier holding the decisive strike.

Karak - The dwarf would have been insulted that a human got to do the job a dwarf was born to do (save the world)

Huzair - What? Aw this sucks, where's all the chicks that should be waiting for me? Man I hope I get raised, this afterlife thing is just not my style.

Alhear - Well, he has a dry sense of humor (very dry, almost dessicated ) so he'd likely view it as another chance to prove to nature it can be circumvented.

Feln - He's in paradise and couldn't be bothered to be reached for comment.

Shamalin - Would be the most distraught, watching the god wracked with insanity and unable to see that the party is there to help. Out of the above I feel as if she could chose not to come back, instead viewing her mortal work as completed with the return of the Heart to its rightful state. Emotionally invested in the outcome, victory comes at the release of duty and therefore a sense of accomplishment.

ah well, just the observations and opinions of a raving madman.